Wednesday, December 21, 2011

I took my car in yesterday to have the alignment done and the battery replaced. Since I knew I would have some kidless time to sit in the auto shop lobby and wait, I packed myself a felt craft to work on. When I was done, I had three poinsettia ornaments I'm going to use as embellishments on my holiday packages. They are super easy yet adorable so you still have time to make some before Christmas. Poinsettias have been associated with Christmas for centuries and I remember my mom keeping the red leafed plant around our house this time of year when I was growing up.

- One 7 inch long piece for the hanger. I used pinking shears and cream felt but you could also use ribbon.

-Cream Embroidery Floss

The Recipe:

The first thing I did was make a template. I traced a 3 inch circle on paper. I also drew a flower petal, about a inch long. I cut a small hole about centered on the circle. Then I traced and cut my flower petal in six places around the center. It doesn't have to be perfect and the petals don't have to all be uniform.

Once you have your template ready, the easiest way to cut this out is to tape the template on to one of the cream felt circles. It will keep the paper from getting too weak and hold the pattern steady. I folded the petal area and snipped in then cut around.

Be careful to pull the template off slowly when you are done so that it doesn't tear the felt.

Now, layer the red and yellow pieces under the top circle.

Using cream thread, stitch the colored layers to the top layer. When you are done, trim up the red layer so that it won't be visible when you sew on the back cream layer.

Loop the hanger piece and decide which way you want the flower to hang. Sandwich the looped hanger between the front and the back layer, then whip stitch around the circle.

I left my back piece plain but you could easily embroider the date or a gift recipient's name for an extra special touch.

The holiday season has brought several requests to my shop for custom orders. It's rewarding for me to stretch my creative talents to create something new and I loved some of the results so much I added them to Mama's Felt Cafe as permanent items.

Mama's Milk went interactive with this pourable carton. The top hides a secret spot for a piece of felt "milk" and the spout folds back up to look like a regular carton.

This toast and honey set is the bee's knees. It includes two pieces of whole wheat toast and a spread of "honey". The bee detail was my favorite part.

To add a little sweetness to my dessert line up, I created this tea and cookies set. There are three different flavors of tea: mandarin orange, peppermint and chamomile. Perfect for pretend tea parties!

Amy ordered a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich as a Christmas gift for a special pediatric orthopedic doctor who has cared for her daughter (and loves a good cheese steak). I'm thinking of serving it with felt wedge cut sweet potato fries.

Lastly, my Mama's Milk and Cookies set got Christmas tree approved make-over. Thanks to Jacqueline for the idea! One Mama's Milk was even made into a special "First Christmas" ornament, with Baby's name embroidered on the back.

As we come closer to the New Year, this Mama is ready to take a little break in January. Kristy has been kind enough to volunteer to man the Mama's Felt Cafe Facebook page and you may see a guest post or two on the blog. I'll be back to celebrate the one year anniversary of my Etsy Shop with a big giveaway, so stay tuned!

About Me

I'm Brittany, a stay-at-home mommy to my son Asher. When I'm not busy sewing, we practice attachment parenting and I'm a big fan of homebirth, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, baby wearing, Elimination Communication, and cloth diapering (when not ECing). If you have non-felt food related questions about any of these things, please ask! You can contact me at mama@mamasfeltcafe.com